Food: Create a community garden
Basic steps:
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Find out: is there a community garden in the area or is there anyone else doing it locally
who you could join in with?
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Find some land: at your centre, in someone’s garden, join the local list for an allotment, use
pots, access the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) / land-share schemes
•
See if your local authority has any advice or ways of supporting you – with money, tools,
contacts
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Contact local businesses including garden centres to see if they will support with equipment
of small amounts of funding
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Get any permission you might need
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Borrow some tools (and some labour!): from parents, other organisations in your centre
•
Plan what you want the garden to do and how: what skills/experience do you have within
your group, or amongst people you know?
•
Get digging, get planting, call in the press - take pictures at every stage, including before
you start, so that you can tell the story
•
Rope in some volunteers who know what’s what to help you – we can provide help with
that, or contact your local Volunteer Bureau to see if you can recruit someone to help out
•
Raise a bit of funding to buy equipment*
Eco-aspect:
Plant things you can eat, and find out about plant things that are drought or flood resistant!
Set up a compost scheme at your youth centre – collect the compostable stuff people throw away
Involve water-saving devices – get a water butt
How it makes/ saves money:
Making seed packets and selling seeds after the first year.
Writing to plant nurseries and garden centres for donations of plants to sell.
Guided tours of the garden with a donation box.
Scarecrow competition amongst the other organisations or local primary schools with a fee to enter
and then the winning scarecrow is put at the garden site.
What ICC can provide:
People who may come and help
Chance to access a small amount of money for tools or seeds
The chance to visit a similar project locally in UK
How do we know it will work?
Well, you don’t yet but on the other side are examples of places where it has.....
Read the case studies from each of Kenya, India and UK for ideas
Visit www.interclimate.org/challenge and look under projects for even more ideas
PS Don't forget to keep a record of what you are doing so you can share it with other people
What have other young people been doing to create a community garden?
Ridgeline Community Garden, Reading, UK
We held a Harvest Fete with a plant and seed sale and the sale of fresh fruit and vegetables. We
had activities for the children including bobbing apples and hoopla and around 200 people visited
the garden. We also held a scarecrow competition for the children at the local primary schools.
Waddesdon Secondary School, UK
We collect biodegradable waste to add to the compost for our garden. There is a green waste bin
in the staffroom and in the playground for people to put their apple cores and banana skins.
Itabua Mixed Secondary School, Kenya
We live in a very dry area and often nutritious food is limited in the area, so we decided to work
together and plant drought resistant crops. We now grow cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum,
maize, cowpeas, pumpkins and amaranthus. We rotate the crops after each harvest and think
carefully about how to use the space so that there is maximum productivity.
Nirmala Memorial Foundation College of Commerce and Sciences, India
We distributed pamphlets in 'New Anand Society' and nearby stores. Along with these, we also
planted saplings in New Anand Society. Our greatest challenge was to convince people regarding
the topic.